Thursday, December 5, 2013

Frequent Tests, Learning, and the Achievement Gap

Recent research suggests that there is value to be had in replacing large-scale exams (midterms and finals) with several short-form quizzes. The study published at PLOS ONE argues that daily online quizzing in class improves performance overall, but especially for students from lower-income households who may have thrived at poor-quality schools. Dr. Samuel Goslin, one of the co-authors of the study suggests “(Those students) get here (to college) and, when they fail the first midterm, they think it’s a fluke. By the time they’ve failed the second one, it’s too late. The hole’s too deep. The quizzes make it impossible to maintain that state of denial.” According to the study, this system of daily quizzes resulted in a 50% reduction in the achievement gap as measured by grades among students of different social classes.